Piano action



Feb. 20, 1951 A. 9. BROWN PIANOJAC' IQN original Filed Dec. 23, 1947 BY I i ATTOR/Vf) Patented Feb. 20, 1951 PIANO ACTION Alexander P. Brown, Beechhurst, N. Y.

Original application December 23, 1947, Serial No. 793,343. Divided and this application June 2, 1949, Serial No. 96,794

4 Claims.

This invention relates to piano actions used in vertically stringed grand piano.

The improvement consists in providing direct blow vertically stringed grand piano action with means for allowing the hammer action to be set lower in a piano case by a built up wippen construction to bring up the wippen and key lever contact surface above the level of the wippen flange pivot, and for keeping the key and wippen contact point at a, minimum friction and in a mean kinetic line position of least resistance namely, a built up wippen, with the key motivating contact point substantially above the wippen flange pivot level to enable a shortening of the connecting arm of the key; in an improved construction wherein the spoon is visible from the top of the action, and in making it accessible for regulation and easy repairs, which can be visibly regulated from the top of the action, eliminating the necessity of removing the action from the piano case in order to make the spoon regulation. The key lever and the action has no locked contact, therefore, either the action, or the keys, may be readily and easily lifted out of the piano without disturbing any of its adjustment or regulation; an improvement consisting in providing the butt of the hammer with a laterally extending shoulder to engage the spoon which is supported by the damper lever and is substantially at right angles to the damper lever to activate the damper head; and a spring interposed between the butt and damper lever, in order to quickly move the butt so that the hammer quickly moves away from the string into its rebound position, this rapid action resulting from a stored energy in the spring transposed through the spoon on to the butt to quickly return the hammer to its rebound and rest position, thereby to eliminate the bridle wire and bridle tape; and in providing a shoulder on the wippen to limit its down movement and thus prevent the jack from dropping below the butt jack cushion, when any of the keys or the action is lifted out of the piano case.

The invention will be further described hereinafter, an embodiment shown in the drawings, and the invention will be finally pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings,

Fig. 1 is a side view of a piano action embodying the invention, the full lines showing the at rest position of the hammer and the dotted lines showing the rebound position;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary side view of parts taken out of Fig. 1, corresponding to the rest position of the hammer;

Fig. 3 is a similar View but with the position of the parts corresponding to the moment when the hammer is striking the string; and

Fig. 4 is a detail fragmentary view with the wippen broken away, and cooperating with the piano key extension lever.

Similar characters Of reference indicate corresponding parts throughout the various views.

Referring to the drawings, the rail It] supports at one of its upper corners I l, a detachable flange 2 to which is pivoted at 3, the hammer butt [5 having the hammer shank M. The other upper corner I6 supports a detachable flange I! to which is pivoted at It a damper lever 29 having a spoon l9 secured thereto, which spoon extends generally at right angles of the damper lever 2!], at least the damper lever 20 and spoon l9 form an elbow lever (Fig. 2) shown in dotted lines 2am pivoted at 8. The pivot points l3 and I8 are on the same line '18 substantially horizontal. A spring 2| is disposed between the damper lever Zli and butt 5.

The butt I5 is formed like an elbow lever shown in dot dash line |5a (Fig. 2), cooperating with the aforesaid right angle or elbow lever 20a. At the other side of the pivot of the butt l5 an abutment level 250 (Fig. 2) formed by the construction of the butt l5, pivoted at 13, is acted upon by the jack 25. The normal initial position of the parts described are shown in Fig. 1 in full lines, their rebound back check position corresponding to the hammer after actually striking the string being shown in Fig. 1 in dotted lines, while the finger still holds the key down, as shown in the dotted line position of the keys in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 shows the position of the parts, corresponding to that moment when the hammer is striking the string before its back check rebound (as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1)

On the same rail it but at its lower end 26, a detachable flange 21 supports and pivots a wippen 3D, pivoted at 28. The body of the wippen 30 is built up to a contact level 2Q, which is substantially above the level of the flange pivot 28. The wippen 30 is preferably cut out at its upper edge to form a grove 30a to accommodate the lower,

end of the jack 25 pivoted to the wippen 30' at 3! (Fig. 4).

Substantially at right angles to the longitudinal line of the wippen 3i! and in the embodiment, ex tending upwardly is an abutment or shoulder 35, which, when it abuts against the flange 21 of rail I0, limits the downward movement of the wippen and of the jack 25, so that the upper end of the jack 25 may not go below the butt jack cushion felt 5B, in fact the upper end should descend only about midway of the vertical side of the butt jack cushion felt 5%, when the key is taken out of the piano or when the action with the rail ID is lifted from the piano itself. This shoulder 35 on the wippen 2i; obviates the need of bridle straps, since one function of a bridle strap is to control the level of the upper end of the jack, and the other function is to pull back the hammer through the action of the damper spring, and the weight of the wippen. The shoulder 35 prevents the jack 25 from dropping below the butt jack cushion. In the drawings a slight space is shown between the shoulder 35 and flange 21, which allows a limited movement of the wippen 30.

A spring 32 is pivoted to the wippen 30 at 53 and is disposed between the jack 25 and the wippen 3!), to control the jack.

The vertically aligned rail in with its hammer butt pivot and its lower wippen pivot 28, has in effect two laterally extending levers, joined by the vertical lever termed by the jack 25 at its pivot 31 and putt contact on the buckskin 8|. This is in the nature of a parallelogram. The key contact point on the win-pen is above the level of the wlppcn fie pivot 28 with the vertical line of the jack 2 n lin with the pivot 31 and said contact point Suhstantiali :arallel to the jack 25 i a back check wire Ml fili-=f1 to the end of the wippen 351 having it lower end supported by the free or unpivoted end of the wippen and it upper end provided with a hack check as having a buckskin layer tie to engage the felted stop 12 of a neck 43 or the butt 55. The buckskin layer 41a and felt 52 engage each other. This back check action prevents the hammer from striking the strings more than one time for each finger stroke on the key.

Under the old style invi ible spoon action the damper lever spring exert a pressure on to the upp r portion or t. e damper lever, transferring this pressure to its ow-er portion exerting it on to the spoon, W hl in wippen, thence to the bridle wire, ience to the bridle tape, thus urges the return of the hammer. In the improved visible spoon cons uction the spring action is such that the lower 1 rtion of the right angle construction or tin or lever Zil with. the spoon i9 reaches under the rear butt portion 45 and exerts this spring pressure directly on the butt and are a faster hen er return; this improved construe ion eliminates the need of the usual bridle we and bridle wire.

A further improvement the construction of the key operated wippen. By the contact surface 29 in the wippen 36, the contact of the button cloth 5 3 with the wippen {at is raised, and the underkey extension arm 58 supporting the button cloth 54 supported by the key 51, is. made shorter thus eliminating the objectionable flexibility of the old style. This 56 is secured to the rear bottom end of the key 51 by regulating screws a knuckle 53a allowing for adjustment. The key El is on the pin 59 of the key rail 30, and normally on the pad 6| of the 1, Oil is rail 62. Thus by depressing the front of the key 57, the arm to is raised to its dotted line position 561;.

The improved parts described are shown combined with parts old and well known. The rail 65 has the adjustable screw 68 with its felt pad 61. The hamishank It on the butt l5 supports the hammer (it which rests against the movable hammer rail with its felt pad 10, operable by a pedal (not shown). The damper rail H is moved by the pedal operated vertical dowel 12. The damper 13 with its felt i4 is supported by the damper lever rod 15, and is adjustable by the screw adjustment T6.

In Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic fragmentary view of the parts correspondin to the full line position of Fig. 1, and in Fig. 3 the same parts as in Fig. 2 are shown corresponding to the position of the parts when the hammer i in striking contact with the string Ti.

In Fig. the vertical or long part 2lc of the spring 2| has a heavy pressure which regulates the hammer with a light pressure, and the horizontal or short part 2 lo of the spring 2| which is pivoted to the butt l5 by a pin 55 or the like, in a suitable cutout 55a to accommodate the entrance of the arm file of the spring, has light pressure which regulates the damper with a heavier pressure. A convolution or turn 21b is disposed between the lon arm 2ia. and the short arm 2|a. The free end of the spring arm 2 ie is merely inserted into the upper portion port Md of the damper lever 2B. Thus a frictionless and squeakless spring is provided by the floating convolution.

In Fig. 2 the operating surface of the spoon I9 is slightly above the dotted kinetic line 8 with suitable space between the surface of the spoon l9 and the butt felt The rest position of the mean motion or the top of the jack 25 contacting the buckskin 8! of the butt 35 covering reinforcing felts $2, is somewhat below the dotted line 18.

In 3 corresponding to the hammer touching the string, the operating surface of the spoon is slightly below the line with no space between spoon. is and felt The top of jack 25 is out of contact with the butt and is somewhat above the line it. The butt buckskin 3| is above the line. it will be noted that when in string contact position of Fig. 3, the hammer shank i l and the damper lever 2e. are generally parallel with each other 3) with the top of the rail H] as a base contrast to the divergent rest position shown in Fig. 2. Thus, the spoon is on the damper lever 2% under the control of the operators depres ed finger storing up the energy in the convolution 212) of the spring 2!, the parts take the position shown in Fig. 3 momentarily. haznmer 68 then rebounds to the dotted line back checked position of Fig. 1. When the performers finger releases the ke the stored up energy acts upon the damper lever and its spoon and quickly returns the hammer 68 from the dotted line position shown in Fig. 1 to its full line rest position.

The novelty is a) the built up contact level 29 of the wippen 3D to raise the contact felt 54 with the underkey rocker extension lever arm 56 to shorten the key the contact point being above the level of the pivot of wippen flange; (b) the spoon visible and regulated from the top of the action; (0) the butt damper activating shoulder foot 45 on butt i5 which acts upon the visible spoon 19 at right angles to the damper lever 20, storing up energy in the spring 2i; and (d) the shoulder on the wippen 39 to limit the movement of the wippen 36 and to prevent the jack 25 from dropping below the butt jack cushion.

This is a division of my patent application Serial No. 793,343, filed December 23, 1947.

I wish it to be understood that I do not desire to be limited to the exact details of construction shown and described, for obvious modifications will occur to a person skilled in the art.

I claim:

1. In a piano action having an action rail, a flange thereon, and a jack; a one piece wippen with a pivotal connection at its rear adapted to be supported by said flange, and having an integral upwardly extending midportion formed to provide a flange and a pivotal connection for pivoting the jack directly into the one piece wippen, and a spring supported by the wippen and acting on the rear of the jack, to activate the jack.

2. In a piano action having an action rail, a flange supported by the rail and extending below the same, a wippen pivotally supported by the flange, and extending in front of the rail, said wippen having an upwardly extending flange portion at the mid-section, a jack extending from the wippen, and pivoted directl to said flange portion, the key contact surface of the wippen being higher than the pivot of the action rail flange, and a spring supported by the wippen and acting on the rear of the jack, to activate the jack.

3. In a piano action having an action rail, a wippen supporting flange, a wippen pivoted to the flange, and a motion limiting shoulder at the upper rear of the wippen, extending above the rear part of the wippen for abutting against said flange to limit the down motion of the front part of the wippen.

4. In a piano action having a key, a wippen, a jack, pivoted to the wippen, a cushioned butt, an action rail having a flange to support the wippen, and a rear abutment shoulder on said wippen adjacent the flange to limit the down motion of the jack which is pivoted to the wippen and to limit its tip portion in respect to the butt jack cushion when said key, or action is lifted out of the piano.

ALEXANDER P. BROWN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 20 Number Name Date 2,116,117 Homm May 3, 1938 2,195,624 Huseby Apr. 2, 1940 FOREIGN PATENTS 25 Number Country Date 88,797 Sweden Mar. 16, 1937 

